Stockholm
by Jewell Trim
Summary: Ezra had messed up. That was the only way he could call it...


**A/N: Totally came up with this while at work and I came home and wrote it out.**

Ezra woke up in pain. The bullet wound he had suffered had put him of commission and he was now in this fine mess.

"Explaining this to the others will no doubt be embarrassing." Ezra muttered as he tried to shift in his position. "Why does it always have to be in the shoulder."

The movement aggravated his wound and he bit his lip to muffle his cry. Looking around, he could see much in the basement he was being held in. The person who was holding him here had thoroughly used all the duct tape in the house it'd seemed. An old rope kept his feet tied together and a bike chain connected him to an old pipe.

"Lord! I've been caught by a novice! Buck won't let me hear the end of this for months."

Ezra did his best to wiggle around without moving his injured shoulder. It proved a little difficult but not impossible. Just as he got his feet behind him, the door opened at the top of the stairs. He stilled his actions and waited as the man descended. The guy looked nervous, or maybe just on something. Clearly, he didn't know what to do with Ezra.

"Look, I can see you haven't thought this through. Having a hostage to get out of the pharmacy was one thing, but now you can let me go. I can see you need the money so I won't hand you over to the cops if you do."

"Shut up." The man said, pulling out his gun and waving it around a little. "You don't know nothing. You're just some fancy talking man who likes to use big words to make everyone else feel stupid."

"Okay, I don't have to use big words if you don't like it. But it still won't change the fact that you are making it harder on yourself by kidnapping me."

"So I should just kill you then." The man said, pointing the gun at Ezra's head.

"No, I didn't say that." The undercover agent tried to think of how to get the man to trust him enough to let him go. "If you kill me then your sentence will probably be for life. I'm an ATF agent."

"What's that?"

"Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms."

"Well this is registered so it ain't illegal."

"Yes well shooting someone without it being in self-defense doesn't point to that."

The man frowned and scratched his head by using the end of his gun. Ezra held in his breath, hoping he wouldn't accidentally pull the trigger.

"What's your name?"

"Billy Mason."

"Well Billy. How about we make a deal and you release me. I will make sure you don't serve a long time for—"

"Nope. I can't go to prison!" shouted Billy, his gun back on Ezra, shaking with anger.

"Okay, calm down, there's no reason to get upset."

"I can't leave. I'm the only one who can take care of her."

"Who?" Ezra pressed, "Who are you taking care of, Billy?"

Billy shook his head and dug into his pocket. He produced a spoon and a bag of powder.

"I think it best if you don't show me something that could incriminate yourself." Ezra looked at the bag suspiciously.

"You're injured. This will help with the pain."

"I think I'd prefer Ibuprofen or Advil, possibly anything else."

"That's fine. I don't have to share. You can be in pain for all I care. Just so long as you keep quiet."

Ezra mulled over the idea in his head, but Billy must've taken his silence as a yes.

If someone were to ask Ezra if he had voluntarily taken drugs, he probably would've asked not to comment. The drugs certainly did make the pain bearable, but it also messed up his motor skills. Billy must've been used to it because he still managed to move around with ease. He had bandaged the wound to Ezra's shoulder and then left the basement.

Standish thought back to his original plan of trying to convince his kidnapper to let him go, but now all he could do when he thought of his plan and his results was giggle. He blamed it on the drugs and rested his head against the pipe. About ten minutes later he had fallen asleep, his thoughts of escaping completely gone. Instead he reflected on how he got here.

He was in the pharmacy, picking up a prescription for the migraines that plagued him after he returned from undercover when Billy came in. Billy had held up his gun, demanding the money from the man behind the cash register. Ezra tried to calmly talk Billy down, but a sudden movement had Billy panic. Ezra jumped in the way of the woman who had knocked something over and was shot in the shoulder. It went clean through. From there, Billy grabbed the money from the cashier, but was panicking on what to do with a man bleeding on the ground. Deciding to use him as a hostage to escape, he loaded the wounded Ezra into his car and drove off. The throbbing migraine and the heavy landing from the impact of the bullet had kept Ezra from fighting back. He'd only been a day back from his last undercover job and he was still mentally recovering from that.

 _The others are probably worried that he didn't come into work. Though Nathan and Chris would complain to him and tell him he should be resting at home._

Ezra opened his eyes and smiled. Well he was resting, albeit he had a new wound and he was on drugs.

The door to the basement opened again and Billy came back down. He had two brown bags in his hand.

One of them he dropped in front of Ezra.

"I do believe I am without the use of my hands since you taped them behind my back."

Billy looked Ezra over and registered the difficulty in eating with no hands. Using a pocket knife, he cut some of the tape away so Ezra could use his right hand.

Something in the back of his head, a voice like Chris's told him he should overpower Billy. Instead Ezra thought of how hungry he was. A side effect from the drugs no doubt. He pulled out a simple lunch meat and cheddar sandwich and a bag of chips and a water bottle. At the bottom was a small bag of fruit snacks.

Ezra rose an eyebrow and looked at Billy who was enjoying his food.

"Interesting choice in meals."

"My mother always made this for me." Billy smiled fondly.

"Is she the one you're trying to take care of?"

"She's sick. In the head is what the doctors say. Surgery cost too much. A crack head like me keeps screwing it up. Used to sneak money from her to get high, but I'm getting better. I just need to get enough money so she can get the treatment to fix her."

Ezra smiled sadly. A momma's boy. A screw up momma's boy. Doesn't that sound familiar? How many times had he lost his mother's money? Just like Billy, he loved Maude.

"If you want, I can help pay for your mother's surgery."

"You're just saying that so I can let you go."

"Well, that would be preferable, but I promise I will help her and do my best from having you serve time, providing you return the money you stole."

"Why would you help me, agent?" Billy frowned in confusion.

"I've messed up myself. Lost my mother's money too. I've just returned from a hard case and while I should be trying to stop you, all I can think about is if I was in your situation. If I hadn't gotten myself together and taken the help offered to me."

"So someone helped you before?"

"Yes. My current boss. While everyone had written me off, saying I was a lost cause, he gave me a new start. Even when I screw it up, he never gave up on me."

Billy thought it over. He was about to respond when there was a loud noise upstairs and he scrambled to his feet. Ezra was confused at first at what it was but then he heard the familiar sound of his leader's voice. Billy pulled his gun out, his hands shaking as he held it towards the door of the basement.

"Billy! Billy. Put it down. It's going to be okay. It's my friends. My boss I was telling you about. Please put your gun down." Ezra shifted, but had to stop from the pain starting to come back. He didn't want the others or even Billy to get shot.

When Chris came down the stairs first, Ezra was quick to tell the blond to hold his fire.

Chris saw the scared young man holding his gun to Chris. He couldn't be more than a year older than when JD joined them.

"Chris please. He won't if you don't."

Chris lowered his gun and the young man did the same, although he only held it just barely off to the side of Chris.

"You okay Ezra?"

"I'm perfectly fine. Although I have an injury to my shoulder, there is nothing the matter with me. I think it was because of young mister Mason's quick thinking that saved me from too much pain."

"Really?" asked Nathan, coming into view. "What did he give you?"

"If I tell you, you probably wouldn't like it."

Chris took the gun from Billy and placed handcuffs on his wrist. Buck and Josiah helped Ezra to stand up after getting him loose from all the different locks, ropes and duct tape.

"Don't be hard on him, Chris. I promised that if he'd give himself up I'd help him."

"What?" Chris frowned.

"This isn't one of those Stockholm situations, is it?" asked Vin, worriedly.

"Please, if that were the case, I'd be dealing with Stockholm syndrome every time I'm held captive at Larabee's house to recover after my many wounds." Ezra grinned.

"This is the thanks I get then." Chris shook his head.

Ezra made sure to hold up on his end and saw to Billy's mom getting her treatment. Though with Billy returning the money he had stolen, he still had to serve a hundred community hours. He was happy, still able to visit his mother who was recovering in the hospital.

"You did a good thing, Ezra." Chris said from beside his agent as they watched Billy push his mother in a wheelchair through the hospital garden.

"All he needed was a second chance and a fresh start." Ezra looked up at Chris, "It's only right to do so after it was given to me."

The two men smiled before Chris turned and made his way to the exit. Ezra fiddled with the sling on his arm and smiled.

Yes, everyone deserves to be saved and have that superhero they can look up to.


End file.
